Towing + Efficiency: Please post your experience!

[Buckets0fun]

1.2mi/kWh - 850mi, mostly on RAN. Aligned at 11.5” drive height.

Used cat scale for trailer weight 5480lbs, weighsafe hitch for tongue weight. ~500lbs.

Roof box is rather large, but KTM EV hanging off the front is likely the largest range hit.

Yep. The KTM was the “issue”. 1.8mi/kWh without it.

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[pdxdriver]

Are you talking about the range at destination number shown on the center screen when navigating? A huge consideration with this is that your Rivian has absolutely no way of knowing what you're towing and what sort of a range reduction will result - it has to learn that over time. I don't think there's any way for Rivian to do anything but provide an initial guess number for you then modify it gradually over time to converge on a better number based on your load and driving and route. A nice-to-have feature would be trailer profiles, so that you could have your vehicle learn different trailers and perhaps be able to set a better guess of a number up front before the learning begins.

Or, are you talking about the "range" remaining in the battery pack, as displayed on the driver's screen? That is not a range estimation, it is a "fuel" gauge. It's better IMO to set this to show % only, because "miles" is just the EPA number for your driving mode times the battery percentage, which has little relevance when towing.

I use the app "A Better Route Planner" (ABRP) which allows you to enter payload/tow weight , temperature and desired charge levels. If you "double" your towing weight, it's surprisingly accurate, way better than the Rivian app (they could learn a thing or two from this). It figures In topography also. Incline towing is by far the most unpredictable and this app does a good job of figuring that in to the estimates.

 

[VSG]

I use the app "A Better Route Planner" (ABRP) which allows you to enter payload/tow weight , temperature and desired charge levels. If you "double" your towing weight, it's surprisingly accurate, way better than the Rivian app (they could learn a thing or two from this). It figures In topography also. Incline towing is by far the most unpredictable and this app does a good job of figuring that in to the estimates.

That's why Rivian bought the company that makes ABRP. All those features are going to be integrated into the Rivian navigation.

 

[Epicloop]

So towing a pretty small trailer 6't x4'w with a total weight under 1000lb & barely taller than the R1.
It was 1.3m/kw going up & 1.5 m/kw combined with return trip. (1.3 up/1.7down)
10k elevation gain/loss.
I thought it would be better as it is such a small trailer.

 

[Billybobgt]

Completed my first trip towing small camper trailer. Hiker trailer is the company and it's their 5x9 box and 13’frame. Weight of the trailer is approximately 1600 lbs with our camp gear in it.

Towing conditions were temps in 60s on the way up and 80s on the return and wind generally light all day. The trip was from NW Florida to Birmingham, AL all on one day. Attached are two pictures showing the efficiency at the first stop and then again after reaching the destination. I did stop a little south of Birmingham for 8 min charge as insurance to make it from the drive electric Alabama car show and then back but didn't actually need it. Speeds on the highway at or slightly above 60mph.

Don't have pictures of return efficiency because it got ruined by the interstate south getting closed for a bit and I had to go around with a bunch of other cars causing additional traffic. I did see slightly better efficiency though due to the slight decline. Averaged out to around 1.7 m/kwh. When charging I used the planning factor of getting 2 miles of range per displayed % level to know when to leave.

I used electrify America all day and had no issues and got the max charging level requested by vehicle. The second two pictures show how the trailer looked behind the truck at the stations. Never had to drop. Ride height was set to low in tow mode and seemed pretty level.

 

[AllInev]

Just finished my first long towing trip. It was a 454 mile round trip with my R1T towing a 4,750lb (boat + dual axel trailer) load. For the entire trip roundtrip, I averaged about 1.1 miles/kWh.

R1T with 16k miles on the odometer
21" wheels
Almost all 454 miles were highway miles at 55mph.
Weather was clear and mild with no significant wind

For planning purposes, I used ABRP app configured for 1.1 miles/kWh. Given all the highway miles were at 55mph, I expected better than 1.1 miles/kWh but that's what I ended up getting.

 

[AbhorViolence]

Just finished my first long towing trip. It was a 454 mile round trip with my R1T towing a 4,750lb (boat + dual axel trailer) load. For the entire trip roundtrip, I averaged about 1.1 miles/kWh.

R1T with 16k miles on the odometer
21" wheels
Almost all 454 miles were highway miles at 55mph.
Weather was clear and mild with no significant wind

For planning purposes, I used ABRP app configured for 1.1 miles/kWh. Given all the highway miles were at 55mph, I expected better than 1.1 miles/kWh but that's what I ended up getting.

Thanks for this report. Yeah that's a little disappointing efficiency especially on 21s.

My camper should be around 4000lbs loaded, and if anything is probably less aerodynamic than your boat so I guess I'll be lucky to get similar when I get around to towing.

Looking forward to the coming software update that's supposed to have towing improvements. Doubt it will help actual efficiency though.

 

[scottf200]

Been looking over this thread and trying to decide what a good representative 'common' number would be for column P in my spreadsheet below for mi/kWh?
1.1? or 45% of "calc'd miles/kWh"

I got the 0.9 from this video:

7420 lbs dual axle trailer​

Edmunds Cars - Electric Truck Tow Test: 2022 Rivian R1T vs. 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning | Towing with Electric Trucks​

​

 

[VSG]

All of Edmund's range tests for the R1T have been quite wrong - I wouldn't use their numbers directly.

Bottom line is that your range "loss" is predominately due to your trailer's drag. Which is highly dependent on your particular trailer's shape and highly sensitive to your speed. Because drag increases exponentially with speed, your cruising speed will make a huge difference. Weight is not the dominant factor in towing range, although it can be significant if you do a lot of elevation change.

Because of this, what YOU see as a range loss really depends on YOUR trailer and YOUR driving habits and where YOU are driving - a general number for kWh/m that applies to everyone is not possible in general. But the 50% loss factor that Rivian uses as a first guess is going to be closer than 0% loss, and is high enough that it overestimates the loss for most* cases.

*I say "most" because, in my opinion, a graph of the weight/size of trailers being towed by Rivian's will be heavily weighted towards the lower end, as that is the market segment the R1T is aimed at - it's not meant to be an HD-truck substitute.

 

[Buckets0fun]

Another 1k miles down. 1.4mi/kWh.
~5800lbs. 20ft featherlite, Model 3 time attack car, gear spread out throughout the combo.

 

[JeremyP]

Another 1k miles down. 1.4mi/kWh.
~5800lbs. 20ft featherlite, Model 3 time attack car, gear spread out throughout the combo.

1.4! There's way too much aero going on there! I'm just picturing our box shaped trailer back there instead

 

[Epicloop]

QM, 20"AT towing Foxblocks, treated 2x12's & rebar, likely about 5000lbs.
The first leg was an essentially flat 50 miles using 40% SOC.
The 2nd leg as per 3rd image was climbing 4400' in 40miles which netted the very poor .64m/kw.
The 2nd image included the 2nd leg & down the pass losing 2200' from the summit yielding an average of .89m/kw over the mtn pass.
Towing back home empty (3750lbs) yielded 1.6m/kw over 150 miles with a net loss of 3600'
Aero is certainty a huge factor in efficiency, huge consideration on future cargo/rv trailer purchase.
There is a market for much more aerodynamic cargo trailers as I don't see many smooth sleek designs, I may make my own at some point.

 

[Buckets0fun]

1.4! There's way too much aero going on there! I'm just picturing our box shaped trailer back there instead

Sup?
KTM EXC or TireTail with camper?
You pick.

 

[JeremyP]

Sup?
KTM EXC or TireTail with camper?
You pick.

Can you tell us more about what I'm assuming is a front receiver hitch?

 

[Buckets0fun]

Can you tell us more about what I'm assuming is a front receiver hitch?

We built a front receiver for the vehicle in order to best utilize the SUV for our (needs) / adventures.

Have considered selling them, but decided that I’m not willing to take on the liability. Despite beating the snot out of it off-roading with the camper.

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